IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Rare and deadly November tornado outbreak in US; Record and extreme weather disasters on the rise; Dangerous cleanup operation begins at Fukushima; PLUS: UN climate treaty negotiations stall ... All those dots connected and more in today's Green News Report!

A judge ruled here Monday against an injunction to suspend controversial shale gas exploration activities in Kent County, New Brunswick, which last month created headlines across North America when protests in the area turned violent as activists burned police cars amid dozens of arrests.

[Former Vice President Al] Gore isn’t alone in having a sort of come-to-Wall-Street moment. Last month 70 investors representing $3 trillion of assets under management sent letters to oil-and-gas companies asking them to disclose plans for adapting to a world that may be edging closer to peak fossil fuels. That’s the point when humans stop increasing their annual burn – either because the environmental danger makes it too costly or because buildings and cars run more efficiently. Bloomberg New Energy Finance says peak demand could happen in 2030.

State health officials rolled out groundbreaking rules for the oil and gas industry Monday to address worsening air pollution, including a requirement that companies control emissions of the greenhouse gas methane, linked to climate change. The rules would force companies to capture 95 percent of all toxic pollutants and volatile organic compounds they emit.

The best science suggests that on our current CO2 emissions path, by 2100 we could well pass the tipping point that would make 200+ feet of sea level rise all but unstoppable - though it would certainly take a long time after 2100 for the full melt-out to actually occur.

The recent slowdown in global temperature increases is partially the result of one of the few successful international crackdowns on greenhouse gases. Back in 1988, more than 40 countries, including the US, signed the Montreal Protocol, an agreement to phase out the use of ozone-depleting gases like chlorofluorocarbons (today the Protocol has nearly 200 signatories).
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"The recent decrease in warming, presented by global warming skeptics as proof that humankind cannot affect the climate system, is shown to have a direct human origin."

We already knew that barnacles, lanternfish, and whales have been gobbling up plastic. It turns out that the problem is even bigger than we thought - because it is much, much smaller. Welcome to the "plastisphere," the tiny plastic-based ecosystem developing within the world's oceans.

The ivory crush in Denver, which was temporarily postponed by the government shutdown, is intended to "send a message to ivory traffickers and their customers that the United States will not tolerate this illegal trade."

Media coverage of nuclear power often suggests that environmentalists are illogically blocking the expansion of a relatively safe, low-carbon energy source. However, in reality, economic barriers to nuclear power --- even after decades of subsidies --- have prevented the expansion of nuclear power.

A new study shows that human beings are too selfish to endure present pain to avert future climate change. That's why we need win-win solutions now....The Nature Climate Change study also underscores why "win-win" climate policies - like innovation investments that can lead directly to cheap clean energy, rather than policies that make dirty energy more expensive - are likely to be the most effective ones.